1. Use of analytics

Digital marketing and analytics can provide marketers and company directors (and PR companies too) access to large amounts of data that can be used to figure out how clients look for products, buy things, and converse with companies.

Google Analytics and the whole concept of “big data” (and crucially its analysis) allows businesses to understand their target audience and use these insights to change up plays on the fly. It’s about hearing, understanding and communicating in the correct language. This leads to stronger relationships between customers and companies, and more opportunities for sales.

2. Brand trust and consumer trust built on social

These days, brands must work harder than ever to win trust and manage customer relationships in an effective way. Everything is out in the open now and happens in real time. There are countless reviews out there, good and bad, and permanently available for all to see.

Social media provides companies with an opportunity to develop relationships with their prospects through credible and transparent marketing that is more easy for customers to accept than the dull strike force of push marketing. Brands connect to their base through influencers, shares, and viral, allowing for a more organic marketing experience.

3. SEO is everything

One thing has stood for the last ten years as a paramount cornerstone for digital success: SEO. The rules keep changing, the tricks and shortcuts continue to be improvised and worked round. When you want immediate info on a product or company, where do you go? Google of course.

An effective SEO strategy and a continually growing content marketing (Owned) strategy are crucial components of any marketing or PR strategy.

Organizations that know how to make the most of their inbound marketing efforts, create useful content, and attract back-links will get the rankings they need to race ahead of the competition. The better a company’s ranking is, the more likely they are to generate sales.

Line Today now has over 32 million users in Thailand after just two years of formal operations within the Kingdom. Thailand is now the world’s second largest market for LINE and its ancillary/multi-channel service offering.

Line Thailand has a mission to incorporate AI technology, which will bring more highly tailored, personalized content to better connect with its young audiences.

“With 32 million users, accounting for 71% of Thailand’s 45 million mobile internet users, we believe Line Today has shown the highest growth rate among news portals,” said Kawin Tangudaisak, content business director.

The service has grown rapidly to over a billion page views a month, and Thailand was also the second largest market in this regard too. The service came to Thailand at the same time as it arrived in Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Mr. Kawin said, “Line Today aims to help publishers increase their revenue and boost traffic to original websites. Online readers can also get access to trusted, quality content”, he said. “Print publishers have faced a decline in advertising revenue, with the market contracting 20% over the past several years to 10 billion baht”.

While online ad spend has grown, it is still a relatively small part of the global advertising pie, accounting for 10% of total spending.

Line Today sits in an enviable position within the market with a strong grip on news and content as well as short videos and a new Live feature that is of very real use to active social media users looking to grow their own outbound reach. Some of the main reasons users like to use the platform and actively engage on it is that it functions as a news portal with quick updates, and is easier to use than rival services such as What’s App which is under-developed in this regard.

Fitness Innovations (Thailand) Ltd. (FIT®), the organizer of the Asia Fitness Conference (AFC), is hosting its “Asia Fitness Conference 2018 (AFC 2018)” with the strong multi-level PR support of Vivaldi Integrated Public Relations. The forum is expected to attract over 1,500 fitness professionals, enthusiasts, facility owners and managers, nutrition and other related professionals in the region to experience 3 days of cutting-edge education, networking and motivation. AFC, ‘Asia’s best fitness conference’, is to be held from 5-7 October 2018, at Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC), Bangkok.

Vivaldi set up a press conference which brought a plethora of media from lifestyle, fitness and sports publications and web sites. As 2018 will mark the 10th Anniversary of AFC (the largest and best regarded fitness conference in Asia), it is essential that strong publicity seeding activities were put in place in the lead-up to the October event.

Fitness Innovations is committed to raising the bar by improving standards in the Asian fitness industry. Given this year’s theme of “Fuel Your Passion: Know More, Achieve More”, the program delves into many aspects of fitness and from a number of angles. There will be over 60 internationally recognized presenters who will share and lead 196 sessions in addition to 15 pre- and post- conference sessions. It will offer full streams of education in sport conditioning, nutrition and weight management, personal training, Yoga, Pilates and Gyrokinesis, dance, injury prevention and rehabilitation, personal and business development and new equipment trends.

Media professionals wishing to attend the conference and enjoy the hospitality of the Vivaldi PR team can pre-register their interest by calling +662 650 9242.

AFC 2018 will host a number of competitions during the 3-day Conference, including the AFC Personal Trainer of the Year, AFC Fitness Idol 2018, CWL Olympic Lifting, IPF Power Lifting, IKFF Kettlebell and the AFC 2018 Fit Games. Participants will have a chance to challenge themselves against the best, “fast-track” their careers and win excellent prizes.

Asia Fitness Conference 2018 is supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports (SAT) and the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB). For registration and more information about the event, please visit www.asiafitconference.com, call +662 650 9242 or email:[email protected]

Two of the world’s leading powerlifting, fitness athletes and social media stars are leading a special showcase demonstrating the international sport of Powerlifting in Bangkok. Vivaldi Integrated Public Relations was chosen to design messaging for the newly created Thai Powerlifting Federation, and the PR firm provided high-level support for an inaugural lifting demonstration in Thailand, and inclusive of a press conference.

Layne Norton and Holly Baxter headlined a special program of fitness and nutrition coaching over April 28 and 29, followed by a VIP press day on April 30th. Fully endorsed and supported by International Powerlifting Federation (IPF), the program highlights the IPF’s commitment to developing the sport of drug-free competitive powerlifting globally, bringing this extraordinary show of strength, focus, balance and dedication to lifting to growing and increasingly enthusiastic weightlifting and fitness audiences in Thailand.

The lifting community in Thailand can at times be inclined to follow a certain previously established (or assumed) ‘template’ for what is possible in lifting; that is, that performance-enhancing drugs are necessary to achieve one’s best. Supported by the IPF, powerlifting is a sport that is 100% drug-free, and this is a key principal for anyone who competes in the sport. Vivaldi’s role was to create the positioning for the sport, and distribute it through the company’s well-established national media channels to deliver the maximum impact possible.

The event drew a large crowd of enthusiasts and newcomers, as well as sports and fitness media, with all aspect of media registration and media briefing handled by Vivaldi PR.

Australian Fitness Model and social media star Holly Baxter concluded, “We’ve had chance to go through how the squat, deadlift and bench press work and give people an idea of how the sport operates. Through the two-day seminar and practicals, we’ve been able to attract new members, giving them the chance to begin to compete at a high level in a drug-free environment. It’s not just for big people or for guys; it’s for people of all sizes and from all backgrounds. It’s exciting to be part of this growing movement for drug-free competition, and offer an amazing platform for athletes and newcomers to get involved and experience the lifestyle which in itself is positively life-changing”.

The Global Communications Symposium brings together students from around the world for cross-cultural exchange of talent integration, ideas and teamwork. Students, lecturers and industry professionals have converged every year since 2002 to observe and participate in this highly valuable program. A collaboration of 15 universities from 15 countries teaches the future generation of communications industry leaders about the challenges of working across cultures, languages and distances. The 2018 edition of GlobCom was hosted by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Students are grouped into teams (or ‘real communication agencies’) and given 12 weeks to prepare a global public relations campaign based on a challenging corporate PR brief that spanned 5 continents. Each team was led by mentors from education or industry. Joseph Henry, the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Vivaldi Public Relations, the leading Public Relations Agency in Thailand, coached one of the 9 teams. Joseph also participated as one of the esteemed jury members tasked with selecting the finalists for the competition.

About the experience he said, “It was incredible working with a group of talented and motivated students from Spain, Australia, UAE and many other countries. The proposal and pitch presentations I saw were strategic, professional, and incorporated and conveyed many excellent ideas. It was my privilege to support this worthwhile program as both a mentor and jury member.”

Working purely in an online fashion can be challenging and is open to producing inadequate results based on misunderstanding or misinterpretation. Education centers today bring together students from different countries and different backgrounds in an environment in which they must learn together, work together and create understanding, often across great physical distances. In this regard, it is no different to how teams must co-operate in international business environments and being able to learn these skills has massive value for students for this very reason. PR is something that is also often misunderstood by agency clients and internal operators alike; its value and the interpretation of its meaning can mean different things to different people across different regions. That’s exactly why this type of collaboration is essential in teaching crucial skills to developing young PR professionals.

Almost 1.9 billion Facebook users globally were set to be protected by an all-new and all-encompassing EU privacy law. That’s the new Euro law restricting what companies do with people’s data goes into immediate effect tomorrow. Facebook however is doing everything it can to make that number of users much fewer.

Facebook users outside US are governed by terms of service agreed with the company’s international headquarters (in Ireland).

Facebook is now planning to make the case for ONLY European users, meaning 1.5 billion people in Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America will not fall under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes effect on May 25 (following successful closure).

Facebook is highly focused on reducing its exposure to GDPR, which allows European regulators to fine companies for collecting or using personal data without the user’s consent.

This removes a large potential liability issue for Facebook, as the new EU law allows for fines of up to 4 percent of global annual revenue for infractions, which in Facebook’s case could mean billions of dollars.

The change comes as Facebook is under scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers around the world since disclosing last month that the personal information of millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, setting off wider concerns about how it handles user data.

The change is set to have an effect on over 70 percent of Facebook’s 2 billion-plus members. As of December 2017, Facebook had 239 million users in the US and Canada, 370 million in Europe and 1.52 billion users elsewhere.

Please speak to us for free advice or to request a project-specific consultation.

Vivaldi Integrated Public Relations was chosen to support the extension of The MICHELIN Guide’s reach to Phuket and Phang-nga with a new 2019 edition: The MICHELIN Guide Bangkok, Phuket, and Phang-nga 2019, to be released at the end of 2018. It features Thailand’s vibrant food cities with a wealth of accommodation options in one single guidebook. Vivaldi has previously consulted with Michelin Guide to look at ways it may assist with the launch of its inaugural 2018 Thailand Edition. For the forthcoming year, the agency has been responsible for producing messaging design, communications consulting, the preparation of press releases and the management of media events leading up to the new revision. Vivaldi has also supported the launch of Michelin’s Dining Series. Michelin launched the inaugural edition of its much-anticipated curated gastronomic event ‘MICHELIN GUIDE DINING SERIES’, a series of highly exclusive dinners under MICHELIN Guide Bangkok’s “Food Experiences Program”. The first edition, held in March of this year, received superb feedback from VIP guests and demanding Bangkok foodies and was very much oversubscribed, with places being very limited. The launch dinner sets up the remaining three dinners to be much sought-after exclusive culinary events. Michelin’s reach will now successfully grow to encompass more food cities as the guide expands and builds upon its position of authority in the sector with the strong public relations support of Vivaldi.

According to Michael Ellis, International Director in charge of the MICHELIN Guides: “This year, apart from our established presence in Bangkok, The MICHELIN Guide has explored new territories in the South of Thailand in search of the finest restaurants and hotels. Thrilled by the culinary and hospitality scene of Phuket, which offers unique and fascinating characteristics as it consists of a blend of various different cultural influences, MICHELIN inspectors are excited to discover and reveal the best dining and lodging experiences”.

The MICHELIN Guide Bangkok, Phuket, and Phang-nga 2019 will be available in a bilingual edition (Thai and English), in both print and digital versions. To learn more about The MICHELIN Guide, please visit guide.michelin.com/th/bangkok; or follow updates regarding The MICHELIN Guide Bangkok, Phuket, and Phang-nga 2019 on Facebook: facebook.com/MichelinGuideThailand; or enter the hashtag: #MichelinGuideThailand or #MichelinGuideBangkok to find relevant information.

Please speak to us for free advice or to request a project-specific consultation.

1. Show the brand to have a human side

People are under too much pressure from brand messaging, which comes at them on every platform and from every direction. A typical person receives 10,000 brand messages every single day. As global data grows, so does the noise to which people are exposed.

Make sure you speak to people in a human way. Create messages that are vibrant and resonate, like a human interest style of approach. Show your brand to have a human side, and post personally from your staff. Respond to comments, and engage and converse.

2. Take the guerilla gig ‘band’ approach

Guerilla marketing is exciting when used in PR as it’s not expected from these sorts of stakeholders. It helps to establish your brand personality, and shows that you are coming to the market with a different approach. Think about creativity and out-the-box thinking, and keep budgets small. For PR, this can mean focusing on “buzz campaigns.” These are high impact, created in a quick way, make a lasting impression and focus on rapid, different results rather than metrics and big, showy campaigns.

A great thing about this is you don’t need a traditional or expensive magazine type of approach. Create pop-ups, and make them colorful and really unplanned. You engage with people in a human way in environments they are already passing through, not bombarding them with more social media noise.

3. Go down the ‘challenging convention’ route

A lot of your competitors use PR firms, and even with relatively big budgets behind them, they still find it hard to get noticed. People are fatigued from noise. Your first step here is in applying some analytics, and from the PR side, the most obvious option is media monitoring. This is time consuming and expensive to do yourself, so you can quite cheaply outsource this part to a PR firm.

The other side is in messaging creation, brand management and communication planning, and even PR firms find this hard (due to either a huge torrent of client side work or just a lack of capability in house.

Think big and look at firms like Amazon. Not in how they have unassailable marketing budgets, but in how they are not afraid to push the boat out on challenging convention.

Please speak to us for free advice or to request a project-specific consultation.

Facebook Inc. recently announced it has taken down over 583 million fake profiles in the first three months of 2018, and claimed that most were removed in just a few minutes after they were created and made public.

Facebook also said it culled 837 million pieces of spam and responded to 2.5 million examples of what it defined as ‘hate speech’, it said in its first-time report on how it will go about enforcing community standards.

Facebook has been under strong public and media pressure (and cross-border governmental pressure) following the Cambridge Analytica scandal in April. The company has been forced to defend itself from criticisms over its community management standards and data protection and data security issues which have caused mass drop-outs in active user numbers.

Facebook’s total community is 2.2 billion monthly users, although it’s unclear how many of these profiles are real or actually being used. Governments around the world have been questioning the Menlo Park California-based company’s policies.

Facebook’s report, which is apparently going to be distributed twice a year now, highlights the importance of AI in administering its systems. The report says: The conclusion from the first metrics is that some problems are better suited to computerized solutions than others. Almost 100 percent of the spam and 96 percent of the adult nudity was flagged for takedown, with the help of technology, before any Facebook users complained about it. But only 38 percent of hate speech was noticed by the AI. Hate speech is harder to deal with because computers often can’t understand the meaning of a sentence — such as the difference between someone using a racial slur to attack somebody, and someone telling a story about that slur”.

“It’s a work in progress always,” Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of product management, said in a briefing. “These are the same metrics we’re using internally to guide the metrics of the teams. We’re sharing them here because we think we need to be accountable.”

Please speak to us for free advice or to request a project-specific consultation.

Everyone seems to be a social influencer these days, including bloggers with popular pages, micro-celebs doing brand pushing stuff, and even YouTube stars who have risen to fame by making videos about daily lift, their hobbies or their fields of interest and learning. And of course, businesses everywhere are looking at the best ways to engage.

So how best to leverage this reach without wasting cash on a lot of likes but very little ROI? How to connect to the best influencer for your particular offering?

The state of play right now

According to a study published by Collective Bias, “Around 70 percent of the Millennial generation have their buying decisions influenced by their peers, and that represents a huge proportion of people relying on others to recommend new products to them, often now through the interconnected social space online”.

The same study found that, “Facebook stands to be slightly ahead of YouTube in the battle for the most influential social platform, with 19 percent and 18 percent of consumer purchasing being influenced by posts on the platforms by influencers”.

It’s also worth noting that influencers don’t strictly have to be humans – wonderfully (or ridiculously, depending on your take of social and its good and bad), animals can be influencers too.

Useful Influencer A: The Authority

Let’s begin by starting with an oft overlooked group in terms of their potential importance versus their perceived importance. Persons in a position of authority (social media wise, we mean) in your area of expertise/business are naturally the ideal people to outreach to for influencer marketing. They are able to command audience attention and they will also have a following. It’s also worth noting that these types of committed, industry leading people likely to be highly and regularly active on their channels. A link from an authoritative source back to a brand can be incredibly important for ranking factors, especially with an .edu or a .gov source.

Useful Influencer B: The Advocate

Advocates are already influencers for other brands, so when reaching out, it’s important to recognize and potentially discuss any conflict of interest. There may also be non-disclosure documents involved which can protect both of you. These types of influencers are popular because they are always on the lookout for a brand they could represent, and hopefully will already have a feel and understanding on how to post to get the optimum results client side.

Useful Influencer C: The Celebrity

These are the most influential people with masses of followers and typically will have nothing to do with your actual brand (or products, often). It’s a simple pay-for-use-of-your-status deal, with all of the good and bad this implies.

Please speak to us for free advice or to request a project-specific consultation.